Stitch! (スティッチ!, Suticchi!)[a] is a Japanese anime television series. It is a spin-off of Disney's Lilo & Stitch franchise, serving as the franchise's second television series after Lilo & Stitch: The Series. The anime series aired in Japan from October 2008 to June 2011, later receiving additional television specials in 2012 and 2015. It features a Japanese girl named Yuna Kamihara, who takes the place of Lilo Pelekai as the best friend of the titular Stitch, and is set on a fictional island in the Ryukyus off the shore of Okinawa called Izayoi for its first two seasons, replacing Kauai, Hawaii, then moving to a fictional Okinawan city called New Town for its third season.
The first arc of the series, which serves as the first season outside Japan, was produced by Madhouse and aired from October 8, 2008, to March 25, 2009, with a post-season special on June 26, 2009, also known as "Stitch Day" in reference to Stitch's experiment number (626). A second arc of the original series, called Stitch! ~The Mischievous Alien's Great Adventure~ (スティッチ! ～いたずらエイリアンの大冒険～, Sutitchi! ~Itazura Eirian no Daibōken~) aired in Japan from October 13, 2009, to June 29, 2010, with another post-season special on August 8, 2010, completing Madhouse's 56-episode run. A 29-episode sequel series from the original two-arc anime, entitled Stitch! ~Best Friends Forever~ (スティッチ! ～ずっと最高のトモダチ～, Sutitchi! ~Zutto Saikō no Tomodachi~), was produced by Shin-Ei Animation and aired on TV Asahi from July 6, 2010,[2] to March 8, 2011, with a post-season special for this season on June 19, 2011. Shin-Ei then produced two more TV specials, known as Stitch! New Specials, that continued from the series. The first special, Stitch and the Planet of Sand (スティッチと砂の惑星, Sutitchi to Suna no Wakusei), aired on June 16, 2012. The second post-series TV special, Stitch! Perfect Memory (スティッチ！パーフェクト・メモリー, Sutitchi! Pāfekuto Memorī),[b] was announced on June 26, 2015, and aired on August 7, 2015. No further specials were produced after Perfect Memory, as Stitch! would be succeeded in the franchise by the Chinese animated series Stitch & Ai in 2017.
